Microsoft expands program for women returning to work(Read @ Reuters)
SAN FRANCISCO, June 5 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is stepping up its hiring of women seeking to rejoin the workforce, following a rash of complaints about sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the world’s largest software company. Such “returnship” programs, aimed at workers who had paused their careers to raise children or care for loved ones, are gaining popularity in Silicon Valley as technology companies seek to address criticism about its bias toward young male staff.

The U.S. now has more open jobs than job seekers (Read @ CBS News)
WASHINGTON – For the first time on record, the number of job openings in the U.S. exceeds the number of unemployed Americans — a trend that may soon give workers more leverage to demand pay raises. With employers struggling to fill openings, the number of available jobs in April rose 1 percent to 6.7 million from 6.6 million in March, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s the most since records began in December 2000.

WOTC Questions: Veteran Hiring Campaign (Read @ WOTC Blog)
Hi. I am a recruiter for a national retailer and want to start a veteran hiring campaign. Any ideas of where to post openings to attract veterans? Thanks.

Number of Employers Using Social Media to Screen Candidates Has Increased 500 Percent over the Last Decade (Read @ CareerBuilder)
Spending your work day browsing social media? You’re not the only one in the office. According to CareerBuilder’s annual social media recruitment survey, 60 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 52 percent last year, 22 percent in 2008 and 11 percent in 2006, when the survey was first conducted. Additionally, 59 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates – compared to 51 percent last year.

Poor Recruiting Is Killing Retail — the Top 12 Tips for Stopping the Pain (Read @ ERE)
The biggest threat to retail isn’t Amazon. It’s poor recruiting! Skeptical? Well, look no further than the recent announcement that the famous and profitable Napa Valley restaurant Terra is closing because “we can’t get staff.” If you work in retail, consider this as a “canary in the mine” warning. And even in the cases where poor recruiting is not yet forcing closure, these staff shortages are directly reducing service levels and operating hours. Many blame record low employment, but the real cause is the fact that most retail managers only know how to recruit during times of high unemployment.

Creating A More Efficient Hiring Process
At iRecruit we regularly share recruiting news and information. One of the news features we shared (a long time ago) was titled 5 Ways Employers Could Improve the Hiring Process. This article was published way back in 2010, making it almost eight years old. I took a look back at this list of suggestions to see if they were still relevant eight years later, and was pleased to see that they do still apply today. So here is the updated list of items that can help you create a more efficient hiring process:

Reading Between the Lines: What a Resume is Really Telling You (Read @ Indeed)
So your business is doing well, and all the signs show that it’s time to start adding new heads to the team. Finding the best people means you will soon be reviewing a stack of resumes, and it’s not a step you want to breeze through or approach haphazardly.